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Nettetal is not a town itself, but a federation of villages that have developed around the river Nette, and the worked-out gravel pits that now form five lakes. It is situated on the border with the Netherlands, approx. 20 km north-west from Mönchengladbach and 10 km south-east from Venlo.

The main town of Nettetal is Lobberich, which owes its past wealth from the local German lace industries which developed greatly before the First World War, and the town has an impressive late Victorian Church. During the Second World War the older Church was pierced by an American high-explosive shell, the crater of which can still be seen in the wall.